Bookshelf: Fundamentals of Forecasting Using Excel

Feb. 9, 2009

By Kenneth D. Lawrence, Ronald K. Klimberg and Sheila M. Lawrence, Industrial Press Inc., 2009, 300 pages, $39.95

Involved with forecasting? Here is a book designed to help readers with the tools to analyze their data, develop forecasting models and present the results in Excel.

With the advent of the computer, the decision-making process and the manager's role in it have changed dramatically. That's especially true with the emergence of today's personal computer that dwarfs the power of mainframes of the 1960s and 1970s, the authors emphasize. Computer technology has not only increased data storage capacity and made data easily accessible, but has made analysis tools like Microsoft Excel more readily available to management.

Formerly business management spent a significant amount of time inputting or recording data and little time doing what they were trained and educated to do -- analyzing data. Now, with Excel, managers can spend more time exploring the impact of different scenarios, asking "what if" and addressing more complex questions.

Intended as an essential reference, the book provides the tools to analyze data, develop forecasting models and present the results in Excel (the book includes Excel templates on an enclosed CD).

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